Cheap flights to South America and Asia for Brits, as Norwegian eyes new routes

Following the success of its new Gatwick to Buenos Aires offering, the budget airline hopes to extend its bargain-priced flights to traditionally expensive holiday destinations

By Jacob Lewis

13th February 2018, 5:55 pm

Updated: 14th February 2018, 12:49 am

AFFORDABLE flights to destinations as far away as Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing could soon be the norm for British tourists.

Norwegian plans to expand its UK routes into Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Getty - Contributor

Flights to Buenos Aires with Norwegian, on the world's longest low-cost route, start this week

Following strong sales on its Buenos Aires route, the low-cost carrier is looking to provide Brits with bargain-price tickets to new destinations.

Speaking about their expansion efforts, CEO Bjorn Kjos said: “There is huge demand. We need the permission to fly over Russia so we can offer more flights to Asia and fly tourists into the UK.”

Norwegian’s inaugural Gatwick to Argentina flight - the world’s longest low fare route - is taking place on Wednesday, with tickets available from just £250pp each way.

While in September it launched a London to Singapore route from just £150pp each way.

Getty - Contributor

Norwegian hopes to break the monopoly on more routes such as London to Tokyo following the success of its Buenos Aires flights

Bjorn also revealed plans to expand Norwegian's free wifi from short-haul to all long-haul routes later this year.

He said: “Everybody should have access to free wifi, and we will offer it for free.”

He also announced plans to add mid-size US cities to Norwegian's already expansive offering of American holiday destinations.

From 2020, it will use eight new Airbus A321neo LRs, to fly from the UK to the States.

These smaller planes are the type that Brits might more readily associate with a short-haul trip to Europe.

Handout

Norwegian's modern long-haul fleet reduces fuel costs and allows them to undercut rivals according the the airline's CEO

Cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia, which don’t have enough of a market to support the larger Dreamliner planes are likely targets for these new single-aisle Airbus routes.

The new route from Gatwick to Buenos Aires will also be supported by a new subsidiary airline based in Argentina.

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Starting with internal flights to locations such as Córdoba and Iguazu, the South American arm of the Scandinavian airline hopes to expand to connect to cities in Brazil and elsewhere.

Boss Bjorn also promised direct flights from London to other countries in Latin America, saying: "I can assure you that the UK will get more routes into South America than Buenos Aires."

The CEO said that Norwegian are able to offer such low prices on long haul flights thanks to the relative fuel economy of their brand new Dreamliners, while its competitors ageing fleets "burn a hell of a lot of fuel".